* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Portuguese-born Alexandre Farto’s range spans from collage to portraiture. Of late he’s taken to creating works purely from in situ materials, taking Vandalism as art to its logico ad absurdum conclusion. Advertising hoardings are torn to make fresh images, and plaster drilled away at until the remaining relief forms the work. He is, at the time of writing, experimenting with a cocktail of Quink ink and household bleach. But this is a long way from brutalism. Vhils art is poetic, complex, and ambitious, often focusing on the needs we have abandoned in favour of our wants, and the realisation that trading pleasure back in for happiness will be a less than straightforward exchange.
